Youth Empowerment Program

In School
The Youth Empowerment Program (YEP) is a program designed to teach young people ages 14-21 the skills they will need to enable them to be successful in their future.. There are three different programs under the youth empowerment program that are targeted at different age groups and interests. The first of the three is designed for in school youth ages 14-18. This program is run at five high schools in the Oxnard Union High School District. We hire a credentialed teacher from each school to teach the curriculum to the students in an after school business type setting. The students are offered a total of 175 hours of instruction, if they complete 140 hours the high school district will give them 10 credits toward graduation. They also have the opportunity to earn up to $500 dollars for attending the classes. Using a combination of the Job ready curriculum, career launch and money matters, the young people learn skills that will help them get a job such as, filling out applications, resume and cover letter writing, mock job interviews where they are required to dress professionally, and life skills training for in the workplace. The in school youth are also exposed to a variety of guest speakers that discuss their different careers. They take part in company tours of local businesses so they can see what different industries do. The in school youth also work on a computer based remediation program called Skills Tutor, this enables the young people to raise their basic skills in Reading and Math by at least one grade level.

Out of School
The out of school program is designed for youth that are 18-21, these youth often times have dropped out of high school or have graduated, but have no work experience. These young people attend forty hours of job training utilizing a condensed version of the curriculum over an intense two week period. In the class they work on creating resumes, filling out applications, and looking for jobs in the newspaper and on the internet. On the last day of class, they youth participate in a mock interview, where they are also required to dress professionally. After the young person had completed the class, they work with their case manager to identify goals they will complete over the next year, including, getting a job, going back to get a high school diploma or GED, or signing up for post secondary education or vocational training. The young people are then supported through their efforts of accomplishing their goals for one year by their case manager and job developer. They can also earn up to $500 for taking part in this program.

NFTE (National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship)
The last program that is offered under the Youth Empowerment is the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship or (NFTE). This is a national program that was designed by another non-profit to teach low income young people to become economically productive members of society by teaching them the skills to start and operate their own business. All the young people take part in a 40 hour workshop in which they learn the skills to create a business plan. They then present this business plan to a panel of judges from the community to compete for cash prizes to use as seed money to start their business. Last year, there were three participants that were flown to New York, all expenses paid, to compete in the National NFTE business plan competition. While they were there, all youth received a laptop computer and one young man won third place nationally. The youth earn an hourly wage for this class and participate for cash prizes at the end of class.